I tried on ubuntu 13.04 32 bits, and works fine adding some obvious tasks. So I put then here to some headless like me 😉 :
1: sudo apt-get update (when i install ubuntu my notebook isn’t connected to Internet, so update never ocurred)
2: In my case bcmwl-kernel-source is not installed, Thus the indicated command advise that and do nothing.
3: reboot
Thanks !

my computer didn´t work with versions of 10.10 and greater because of the driver of the wireless card, so this post is concluding that doing this the computer will work, but i´ve tried to start linuxmint in live sesion but never work, how i can even only start linuxmint with a broadcom wireless card , anyone knows, and thank you by yor eforts to work with linux and broadcom

After a lot of googling and futile attempts at enabling wifi in Mint, I found your wonderful article. WiFi was enabled immediatly without any problem, after following your instructions just once and in the process learned some more about Linux. Thanks a lot.

I have been struggling to get the Wireless LAN (BCM4311) working on my Dell Inspiron E1405 with Linux Mint 15 from a live USB. I have access to internet, the wired connection works fine. Tried so many tips from Linux forum, with no luck so far. I have not installed Linux on the HDD, as I am worried the WLAN may not work at all after installation. I have Windows XP for my regular use, trying to get Linux work before I intend to install it on the HDD.
Any help in solving the WLAN detection/connectivity problem will be highly appreciated..
Regards,
K. Kartha

Did you have to do anything different than listed on the page here to get the bcm 4311 running on your inspiron e1705? I’m running the same machine with mint 12 and followed the same instructions, and have had no prevail. The commands got my wifi led working, and was able to now see the chipset with ifconfig, but I still can’t recieve, or brodcast signal, even after reboot. Any help would be super awesome.

Thanks a lot! The modprobe didn’t work at first but after I restarted my Dell Latitude D630 I ran the command again and boom worked like a charm! I almost gave up and installed windows. Thanks running Linux Mint 15|32bit. Going to switch to 64 bit now that I know it works.

Many thanks!!! I would buy you a coffee AND a double chocolate muffin if i could! You saved me alot of time. After multiple attempts with other recommended solutions, yours worked. The tip from Ja was great too. Didn’t need to try the bash one-liner from Hugh but thank you anyway. This got my old hp6715b with mint15 back on wireless. Linux people ROCK!
Dan

Running Mint 15 in my MacBook Pro 13″ (mid 2012) I’ve been using the bcmwl-kernel-source for the Broadcom 4331 wlan chipset. All the time I’ve only had problems to connect to one single wireless network, everything else just worked fine, except a bunch of error messages in syslog.

Then, I upgraded (fresh install) to Mint 16 using the Broadcom drivers from the package manager again. But this time, my connections began to become laggy after a few minutes and so I tried your solution from above. But this also doesn’t really work for me, because on one hand I’m not able to see 5GHz and/or 802.1n networks anymore and on the other hand after a few minutes the network manager doesn’t show the wireless networks around except the one I’m connected to, and this one has a connectivity of 0%. Pinging the gateway is not working, too.

Looking for help with my inspiron e1705 and bcm 4311….I entered the commands listed on the page, and was able to get my wifi led functioning, and ifconfig now recognizes the chip, but I’m not able to connect with network manager, or wicd. Running mint 12. Any help would be awesome!

hi, and thanks – can i just ask, as a noob:: i’d already found this solution on the web:
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source && sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer

…and it seems to have worked as i’m now seeing WiFi signals with
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan
but i wonder how your solution compares to this – are they wildly different?

(Still can’t actually find a way in the Mint 15 UI to list the WiFi signals and let me choose one to connect to – please tell me I don’t have to keep typing runes to make this happen?!)

[it’s funny though that, on turning it on again, a top-right message says: ‘WiFi networks available: use the Network menu to connect to a wifi network’. That’s what had me, you know, using every ‘Network’ menu thing to try to do it.]

Unfortunately, sudo modprobe b43 hangs my laptop … I have a DELL D610, did a fresh install of LM16 MATE but wireless will not come up. Chipset is BCM4318, I tried all sorts of things, no dice. on WinXP, wireless works.

This worked great on my Dell E1505. My Ethernet was not working so I had to download the Linux Firmware nonfree drivers from packages.ubuntu.com using another computer. After I followed the steps I restarted and every thing worked great.

I don’t know if the author still reads these older comment threads, but regardless… THANK YOU!!!

Relatively new to Linux and Ubuntu, have used a Wifi stick on my Dell 1520 for ages now, but with your help freed from that hassle!! and the signal is better with my broadcom wifi! (shockingly!) Thanks again!! Here’s a virtual cup of coffee on me 🙂

Trying to help my roommate get his Broadcom 4311 controller to work in #!, tried this in terminal to no avail. Here are the errors we’re getting.

After the first command: “E: could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (11: resource temporarily unavailable)
“E: unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?”

Thanks – this worked on old HP Pavilion DV6000 laptop.
The “sudo modprobe b43” threw me for a while as it just hung there.
However after rebooting the blue WiFi LED came on – but then went off! Opening Terminal and putting in “sudo modprobe 43” gave better results this time – the blue LED came on and stayed on – and WiFi now works! Thank you again.

Good lord, I was about to toss Linux (again) for driver issues, finally everything is working. Whats up with the broadcom anyway, always seems to be a snag for me an successful linux installation. I think I am going to make Linux Mint work for me, its good on this older Dell! Awesome!

What if I am trying to download WiFi drivers for my Linux INSPIRON 6400, on a Mac, because it no longer has Internet access?
Dell wants to test the Mac before letting me have any drivers? How do I get past that?

Thanks this worked for my Dell D531 w bcm4311. The sudo modprobe b43 does not respond. However, if you press control-z to exit and then finish the rest of the instructions reboot the wifi light comes on and it works..